The Regulatory Authority Information System (RAIS) has been developed by the IAEA as part of a supporting set of actions designed to assist countries in operating their regulatory control programme.
The Safety Requirements GSR Part 1 “Governmental, Legal and Regulatory Framework for Safety” requires the regulatory body to make provisions for establishing, maintaining and retrieving adequate records relating to the safety of facilities and activities, including registers of sealed radioactive sources and radiation generators. The Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources requires each State to “maintain a national register for radioactive sources… and to endeavor to harmonize the formats of their registers”.
Maintaining the national register for radiation sources requires developing adequate data management tools to facilitate data storage, analysis and follow-up actions. Adequate data management is needed not only to keep a national register for radiation sources, but also to manage the large amount of data with which the regulatory authority is daily confronted. It is also essential for assessing the level of radiation safety and security in the country and the effectiveness of the regulatory programme.
A principal requirement for any regulatory data management tool is conformity with the underlying regulatory system in the country. It has to reflect, for example, the applicable classification of radiation sources, the system of notification and authorizations adopted, the regulatory requirements on responsibility distribution for radiation safety issues, the professional qualification requirements for occupationally exposed workers, etc. This principal requirement represents a challenge for the harmonization of data management in different countries with different regulatory systems.
This RAIS site is a platform designed for regulators who are using RAIS, with the objective of providing an instrument for enhancing the sharing of knowledge and experience in establishing RAIS in their respective national regulatory systems and maintaining it as a tool for the management of their regulatory activities.